Baby Sibling

Until the last week or so Elinore has wanted a little sister, or so she says.  I'm not sure she knows what she's asking for yet, or if she just knows sister because she is a sister.  But this last week or so she's started talking about wanting a baby boy. 

The boys are still somewhat dividing with one wanting a brother and the other a sister.  Depending on the day which wants which changes though!

Movement

Early in week 26 of this pregnancy, I started to be able to see some movement from baby inside!  It's an exciting development!

Clothes on!

Keith normally doesn't sleep in much more than his boxers.  I've never thought it was that unusual and no one is the house is bothered by it, until Elinore that is. 

When Elinore gets up in the mornings Keith or I go and get her.  If it's me, she usually asks "Daddy here?"  and after a quick diaper change we'll go find him sleeping in bed.  Sometimes she'll tickle him or play or snuggle with him and sometimes she just wants breakfast.  Either way, as soon as he's getting our of bed she insists "clothes on!" 

If Keith goes to get her, sometimes he'll humor her and put shirt on first, but then she wants to know where his pants are!  More often he goes without a shirt and she insists on "clothes on!"

Kitten Play

The boys, Caleb especially, have been really into spy toys lately.  They've been saving money and buying them over the last 6 months or so.  One of the spy toys has a little laser light on it that points out. 

They have found a new favorite way to play with this toy.  They point the laser light on the floor and move it all around while Elinore chases it. 

Apparently they like to play with their little sister like she's a cat. 

Frozen Sing-a-long

Caden is continuing his fascination with the music from Frozen.  We rarely go on a car ride where we doesn't request it.  (Caleb on the other hand is over it and doesn't want to listen, which don't worry, we get it bud!)  Caden has really continued to learn the words too.  As we're driving along he's singing along word for word to nearly every track.  And he's not shy about it in the car with us!

Relief

Now that I'm finished with my graduate school work, I have this great sense of relief in the evenings at home.  I didn't realize how much it added until it was gone.  My evenings feel less rushed and less stressed because I'm home earlier, I'm not leaving for classes, and I don't have homework looming over my head.  It's an awesome feeling! 

I still question wether pursuing my degree was the right thing for my time over the last 3 years, but I'm glad to say it's done.

Caleb's Loose Teeth

Caleb lost half a tooth probably close to 3 months ago now.  The other half of that tooth and at least one more are also loose.  However, he protects his loose teeth like gold.  Should anything bump his tooth and cause any speck of blood, he runs to grab a tissue or a paper towel to hold the tooth still and stop the bleeding.  I'm convinced he's just putting that tooth back in place to it stays longer.  He almost never wiggles them.  He even has a grown up tooth growing in behind one of his loose teeth, and he doesn't care, he doesn't want to have them fall out.  It might hurt he says. 

First Day of School - 2014

Caden and Caleb are off to second grade!

 

Elinore is not ready for school, but had her share of "me too!" comments for photos.  She likes telling them goodbye and watching them get on the bus!

 



Back of the Bus

Since the boys started school on the 20th, they have come home talking about how they were going to sit in the back of the bus with the neighbor girl.  They had plans to get there and wanted to get on the bus to get to the back! 

I remember being a kid, there was always something cool about the back of the bus.  I have no idea why now, but it was usually reserved for older kids.  You were further away from the driver I suppose and had more "privacy." 

When they got on the bus the second morning for school at least there were already two boys in the very back of the bus, but there were several empty seats in front of them, so you can believe that's where my boys went!

I Big Girl

Just this week for the first time I've heard Elinore start to say "I big girl!"  The first time I noticed she was climbing into one of her brother's chairs at the dinning room table. 

This morning she also shared that she was a big girl when she tried to crawl into the car and sit in her brother's seat too. 

Incline Fascinations

The boys really enjoyed the incline railroad in Pittsburgh.  So much so they have both made replicas since we've been home.  Caleb made a Lego incline car.  Caden made a incline train track and train with his Thomas set and a plastic tub lid in his bedroom. 

Riding the incline wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  It certainly wasn't my favorite, but I'm glad we took them on it.  It is one of the few things they are still talking about and replicating. 

Refreshed

I was a little nervous heading into this year's vacation for the kids and I to Pittsburgh.  I thought it was going to be exhausting and tiring and hard work.  I didn't come back from Boston refreshed.  I mean we had a great time and I'm so glad we were able to experience that city, but it was tiring.  In part because Elinore wasn't sleeping well at all while we were there. 

I was so anxious about it Keith and I talked that if it was hard and tiring and wasn't going well, that I could drive home early and go back and pick him up the end of the week since it was just Pittsburgh and so close to home.

I was so relieved that this wasn't the case at all! 

Elinore slept well.  We didn't stay up late because we were sleeping in the same room as the kids, so when they went to sleep, we did too.  Because it was only 2 hours from home I didn't feel the pressure to cram everything in during the week, we could always come back.  Although I don't think we will, we kind of ran out of things to do actually.  It was just a much more relaxed feel.

I think some of that is due to the fact that Elinore is 2 now, and we were toting a non-walking one year old everywhere!

I've been home a week from vacation and feel refreshed and energized again.  I started working out again, and I don't feel like I'm months behind on housework.  It really is awesome.  I think it may be in part due to the fact that I don't have graduate school looming over my head anymore too.  :)  Yay! 

Friends, Shopping, Home, Vacation Day 8

Our last day of the trip we got an early start.  I sat an alarm and got up and got ready to go before the rest of the family was awake.  Then I started waking them up to get ready to go too.  We hit the road only about 20 minutes later than I had wanted.  By 8:20 we were on the road to the Ligonier, PA Farmers Market to meet up with my friend Claire.  Her family has a stand at the market and she was going to be there for the morning.  We met up with her for 'breakfast,' or we were supposed to but the kids I couldn't make it that long without eating so we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts. 

It was awesome to spend a couple hours with Claire and her boyfriend catching up.  I hadn't seen her in about 4 years, so that was a great time!

Then we hit the road again to head to Grove City, PA to their outlet mall to get some school shopping for the kids done.  You know, us an about 2349827423 other parents and kids.  We skipped trying clothes on at The Children's Place it was so crowded.  We'll return anything extra here!  The bonus of shopping there, we didn't have to pay sales tax!  We ate lunch their before shopping and hit the main kids stores before heading back home. 

We stopped in Austintown on the way home for some Cracker Barrel, which the kids had never been too.  They really enjoyed it.  The deal was sealed when they had halloween stuff in their store already.  Oh and breakfast all day, pancakes for dinner, that is another top favorite for them! 

We pulled into our driveway about 8:30 and we're glad to be here!

Pittsburgh, we've learned some things about your city and had a good time, but I'm not sure we'll be back!  The whole trip just left us slightly unimpressed with everything for a vacation destination.  Everything from the food to the hotel was just below our expectations and hopes! 

Zoo, Vacation Day 7

We spent out last day in the city at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.  When we were talking with folks about our upcoming trip, many people recommended the zoo.  I then assumed that it was going to be awesome.  I would say it wasn't that awesome.  Keith and I both agreed we were just as happy with Cleveland.  There were only two things we liked better.  There were 4 cheetahs out and there were many gorillas, including a baby gorilla.  That was really neat.   Otherwise it was unimpressive.  We finished there much earlier than I had expected.

Which left us some time to go to IKEA!  I'd never been, but wanted to try it out.  Keith went along with us and we checked it out.  While the only thing we purchased was an umbrella, we're glad we went.  We have some great ideas for our bathroom remodel and saw some things we really liked!  We've talked ourselves into the remodeling it on our own to save money and we found some super small sink and vanity sets there that we really liked!  Inspiration found!

We grabbed some supper at Red Lobster before heading back to the hotel.

At the hotel the kids had been wanting to walk Keith through the fountain under the convention center, so we did that before heading back for a final swim of vacation.

The swim was short, Elinore threw up in the water after getting too much water in.  I got her back to the room quickly while Keith took the walk of shame out of the fitness center after having to tell them about it. 

Then it was time to relax together and get packed up for the journey home, with stops along the way, tomorrow. 

Brief Walking Tour, Vacation Day 6

Thursday morning started even slower than normal.  Keith had a late class to start, so he slept in (until 8!), which meant the kids slept later than usual too since he wasn't waking us up getting ready.  Happy faces all around here!  The kids and I headed out in the late morning.  This day we were walking mostly, no car for us!

We started by walking down underneath the convention center Keith's been in all week.  As we drove by it we could see a walkway and a fountain the kids have been interested in, so we walked out our hotel and down.  The fountain was really cool.  It was a peaceful waterfall with a winding walkway down to the river.  We followed the walkway on the river all the way down to Point State Park Fountain.  The boys have been itching to see it up close since we've seen it from many different angles across the river.  They've even argued with me MANY times over which side of the river it was on.  The day before, they spent telling me it was on the other side of the Monongahela where we were.  They were so adamant about it they were furious I wouldn't take them to it while we were on that side of the river.  Today on the walk their they were trying to tell me we needed to cross the Allegheny to see it because they could see it from the Science Center which was over there.  Apparently they'd forgotten they could only see if from across the river over there!

We did finally get there and they enjoying getting sprayed by some of the over spray.  The mist did feel kind of nice on a warm day!  From there we walked through the grass and the kids ran around a little bit until we got to the Block House.  Then we went inside the block house for the kids to try to look out and see; they weren't tall enough to see much, but liked it anyway.  Then we took a slightly longer than necessary walk to Market Square.

We had lunch in Market Square.  We'd been there a few nights before for Primanti Brothers.  I knew it was within walking distance and remembered there being a lot of options, so thought it would be a good stop.  When we were there Sunday night it was so quiet and a peaceful place.  Lunch time on Thursday, however, was a VERY different story!  There was a farmers market in the center and everything else was bustling with people on their lunches from surrounding downtown businesses.  I was certainly in the minority there with the kids in tow!  We did have some Moe's Southwest Grill for lunch though at a table outside.  It was a nice shaded lunch spot to eat.  The boys liked playing with the birds that were around searching for food.

We ate slowly and enjoyed our little spot on the sidewalk before walking around the farmers marketing and selecting some cookies for later for an afternoon snack.  After that, we headed over to the PPG Plaza.  I learned about this place on the Duck Tour the afternoon before.  I grabbed a smoothie on the way.  I was thirsty, but we were really looking for a restroom for everyone.  I thought we'd buy something from the Cafe Mocha and use their restrooms before we headed over to PPG, but they had no restroom, bust! 

We went to play in the fountains anyway, and each of the kids ran around in the fountains enjoying the water!  After they were soaked I knew out next stop was the hotel again!  We did stop after playing in the fountains to eat our cookies on the plaza too. 

Then it was back to the hotel for a nap for Elinore and me too while the boys played on their video games and watched cartoons.  We woke up with less than 45 minutes until we expected Daddy back so a few more cartoons and we waited on him to arrive back for the day.

Once Daddy arrived we decided it was time to take the kids on the incline, much to Mommy's disappointment.  Heights and I aren't really friends; they scare me.  BUT we did it anyway.  We drove over to the Duquesne Incline.  Other than Caden constantly saying "don't look down, down look down!"  Everything went smoothly.  We sat in the back by the track.  We spent a little time on the observation deck before heading back down.  I spent my time keeping Elinore back from the edge so I didn't have to go there, which she wasn't so excited about.

Off the incline we spent some probably 45 minutes driving around trying to decide on dinner.  We drove out of downtown and everything, but never did decide.  We ended up back at our hotel for the restaurant in our hotel, The Original Fish Market.  Keith had heard good feedback on it, so we thought we'd try it out too.  It was probably our most expensive meal of the week.  And it was a lot of fish.  Granted, I expected it to be with the name, but my other selection choices were VERY limited.  I had breaded and fried shrimp, and fried shrimp isn't really my thing.  The sides with it were very good though.  The kids enjoyed their shrimp, and Keith had swordfish, which he enjoyed.  I tried it and it wasn't too bad for fish! 

Then we headed down to Ben & Jerry's for ice cream and a walk back to the hotel for sleep!

Speaking

Keith and I have both noticed lately how much more Elinore's language was developed.  I especially noticed on vacation that when she says words, she goes to the trouble to make sure she gets it right.  Sometimes she's talking slower to get it out more clearly.  It's awesomely adorable. 

Friends & Duck Tour, Vacation Day 5

Today was a much less planned day.  I didn't have a plan for the day other than to meet up with some friends and family in the area.  We spent the morning swimming in the hotel pool.  One of Keith's co-worker's family is here too, and we ran into his wife and kids at the pool for a little bit too.  The kids got a little wild at other kids they knew being around. 

Then we cleaned up and headed to meet Kristin for lunch.  We went to a pizza buffet for lunch before taking them down the street to an elementary school playground for some kids play time.  The boys weren't too interested in it though and Elinore was tired.  We were there until it started sprinkling and then we headed back to the car. 

Then I had to figure out something else for us to do before we headed to meet cousin Jared for dinner.  The kids have been wanting to take the Just Ducky Tour here, so I thought maybe this would be a good chance to go get tickets for it.  Driving there though was a little rough.  I have had good experiences driving so far surprisingly, then it changed this trip! I got a finger and a honk.  The honk I needed to get moving because I couldn't tell what color the light was.  The finger, I'm not certain why, maybe because I didn't let them change lanes?  I also took a wrong turn, crossed a bridge and ended up on the wrong side of the river.  Turning around is not so simple here either, so that was an experience!

We did arrive at the Just Ducky tours though.  After checking the times for the tours, we ended up getting tickets for the 4:00 tour that started in just 45 minutes.  So we found some restrooms, put the stroller back in the van and reported to our spots for the tour since we were supposed to check in early!  It was warm and sweaty waiting in line. 

The tour itself was pretty great though!  I love the corny jokes of course.  And I don't mind the random facts and information about the city either.  Elinore was very good at sitting on the tour, but the jokes were too much for her and she fell asleep by the time we arrived back! 

After the tour, we headed out to the Mall at Robinson and met Jared for dinner at Smokey Bones.  The kids were all wild and loud, so we headed out shortly after we ate, but it was good to see him and see more of the city area. 

Then we headed back to the room to relax for the night and wait on Daddy to get back from the Pirates game!

Pittsburgh Children's Museum, Vacation Day 4

Tuesday morning we decided we'd continue our slow morning routine of cereal in the room, Google planning our day and getting ready.  We spent this day at the Children's Museum because it was supposed to be about 90 degrees outside, and I didn't want to be outside in that all day!

We got to the museum about 15 minutes after it opened, and the drive there was pretty easy.  We spent the day there until it was almost closing time.  The drive back to the hotel afterwards was a little bit more interesting.  There's a Pirates game in town tonight, so the way we came was closed off and there was more traffic for the game.  But I think I did okay and it didn't take too much longer to get back, so I consider that a win!

Anyway, back to our day at the museum.  The kids had a lot of free play and had a good time.  I wasn't as thrilled with the museum as I had hoped.  I was comparing it to our experience at the Boston Children's Museum last year, and I liked Boston better a lot.  Coincidentally, Caleb said the same thing on the way back to the hotel.  He said he liked the Boston museum better!

The kids each got a free t-shirt with admission.  Every Tuesday this summer, the first 200 kids get a free t-shirt.  I say free, but when I paid $60 to get us all in, free doesn't seem like the right word!

We spent a lot of time building things in the museum.  Caden's favorite things were rearranging tubes and wheels and items on a magnetic wall to get a ball from the top to the bottom successfully.  Caleb built a rocket ship, but then wouldn't show me the completed project.  Elinore liked the bolts and nuts that kids were building with.  She just stuck the bolts in the holes and said "ta da!"  She also spent some time building with blocks too one of the museum educators showed her.

Then we headed on to another room that was full of odd things.  Elinore was kind of scared in it and spent a lot of time saying "hold you!"  The boys like the slides.  It was in the attic room.

Then we headed to the garage area that was kind of a quieter area at the time we were there during lunch.  It was quiet since everyone was eating I think.  The kids had a good time moving balls through the obstacle course and sending cars down the ramps.  Elinore like climbing a ramp up and down it without actually playing with anything, but she did like climbing on and off the Neighborhood Trolley and I read her a book or two. 

Finally we spent a little time in XOXO before we headed to lunch.  The kids weren't as excited about it as some of the other areas, but Elinore colored a few pieces of paper, each of the kids made a mask, and the boys maid love coins.  One station had you write something that made you angry on a piece of paper and shred it to let it go.  Caleb and Caden each wrote their brother's name on the paper and shredded it.

We had lunch in the museum cafe, before heading up to the upper floors of the museum.  Elinore slept through the nursery floor 2.  But the boys played for 45 minutes or so.  Then we headed to what I think was their favorite, the waterplay on floor 3.  They each put on a smock and had some fun.

On our way through almost every time the boys climbed the obstacle course up to the second floor and back down; Elinore was never brave enough to get in!

Then we headed back to the hotel to hang out and wait on Daddy for dinner!  I have been wanting a good burger, so to Google Keith went, and to Burgatory we went.  For the 20 minutes it took us to get there it was worth the drive!  We both liked our burgers and agreed it was the best mean we've had yet!  Then it was back to the hotel for an earlier night.  Full House and sleep!

Random Things from Vacation

As if trying to drive the streets of Pittsburgh wasn't a difficult enough task on its own, Elinore has decided she doesn't like sitting at red lights.  As we sit at red lights, she sits in the back seat and says "ready! ready! ready!"  Awesome.

The first two or three days we spent in Pittsburgh, the weather app I use on my phone registered two Pittsburgh locations and constantly showed me two snapshot weather reports of Pittsburgh.  They never matched either.  In fact, at one point there was a 5-6 degree difference.  There was also a difference in the rain and storm factor during Sunday's thunderstorm.  One said light showers (it was clearly a downpour) and the other said severe storm warning.

We relax in the mornings getting ready and eating cereal in the hotel room.  As we do that we turn on PBS cartoons.  While the kids enjoy them, Elinore doesn't understand why when Daniel Tiger comes on he goes away so quickly after the commercial.  She gets excited every time, and then he disappears.

We spend our nights getting ready for bed and such in the hotel with Full House!  I'm a big Full House fan, so that's awesome.  I do have to say though, I feel kind of old now that it is on Nick at Night.  I thought that was for old shows!

It's only about half way through the week, but so far we've been enjoying more time with Keith than we thought we would, so that's awesome!  We have some time coming up with friends still too, which is nice to do when we're in (or close to) their town!

The kids eat more cereal for breakfast than I realized.  Monday morning they collectively ate an entire box of cereal!   I don't think we have enough for the week and we'll be stopping at a store again!

Elevators to Elinore is numbers.  Every time we go to the elevator, she says "numbers!"

To pack to come for the week, each of the kids and I had a duffel bag and a another bag for goodies in the car of the diaper bag in my case.  Plus I had the computer.  Keith on the other hand, had 3 bookbags and a computer bag, and he's added 2 new bags to his pile since we've been here!

Carnegie Science Center, Vacation Day 3

On day 3 of vacation, Keith headed off to a day of learning at his conference.  So the kids and I did some Google research and decided to head to the Carnegie Science Center for the day.  Keith and I had been before 6 or so years ago, and I knew I wanted to take the kids this week, so why not now?

We got to the museum just a half hour it opened and stayed until closing.  The kids seem to really enjoy it!  The boys really enjoying building with the blue blocks in the building section.  They weren't terribly interested in the space stuff, but they liked the robots.  Elinore even impersonated the robot, which was terribly amusing!  We went to the planetarium and saw a Sesame Street show!  The boys thought it was neat, and Elinore sure likes Elmo, so that was neat!  There were a couple times she got anxious or scared in there though and started to cry, but a slightly tighter hold and some reassurance from mom fixed that.  The second time though, she was asking for Daddy!

We had a late light lunch at the museum cafe before we headed outside to see the submarine!  The boys had been looking forward to going in and seeing it.  Carrying Elinore through there was a bit interesting, she spent a lot of time saying "watch head!"  The boys helped with her going through each little portal you had to squeeze through.

Then we headed over to the Sports Center part of the museum, which the boys also really enjoyed!  This is where Elinore took her afternoon nap in the stroller.  The boys participated in several of the interactive displays.  They rode a simulator through the body.  They jumped with the human yo-yo.  They raced each other in time trials and they spun around in a display.  Caden even jumped on the bungee trampoline.  Caleb stood in line for awhile with his brother before changing his mind.  Then he came back later to try again and got out of line again after he changed his mind!

Once the museum closed we took a short walk on the river and grabbed some dinner at Jerome Bettis' Grille 36.  The kids were really well behaved there and ate well before we took a leisurely walk back to our car.  We saw a few statues on the way, like the World War II Memorial, a fallen police officers memorial, and the Fred Rogers statue.

Then we drove back to the hotel, and on the way Daddy called!  So we picked him up and drove around for him to decide on something to eat.  After an adventurous drive (aren't they all in Pittsburgh?), we ended up at Joe's Crab Shack at Station Square.  Caden especially liked the fountain display there!  Even though we'd already ate dinner, we joined daddy for an appetizer and dessert while he enjoyed his crab.  It was nice to be able to wrap up our evening with him!

Natural History Museum & Eats, Vacation Day 2

Sunday, day 2 of vacation, was another day with Keith!  We did have to check him into his conference during the afternoon, but we did get the whole day with him, which was nice.  We started with a lazy morning in our hotel while a nice thunderstorm raged outside!  We left in the storm, stopped at a CVS for some groceries for the week, and then drove around to park to eat at Pamela's.  We were fortunate enough to be able to meet a good friend of mine from college who happened to be in town the same time we were for a wedding!  It was awesome to catch up and meet her boyfriend and spend breakfast together.  I haven't seen her in about 5 and a half years, so it was great. 

Getting there and parked was an adventure for Keith and his driving.  The one way roads here and the parking is crazy to navigate for us.  We almost turned in a bus lane going the wrong way for cars, and Caleb, being so smart in the back seat goes "Dad, you're not a bus!"

Brunch was delicious though.  Then we parted ways and we headed to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.  Keith is really interested in that kind of thing, and it's one of the things he wanted to be able to do while we were there, so we did!  We'd been there probably less than a half hour though when the fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the museum.  We spent 20-30 minutes outside before we could go back in.  We did see a fire truck come to check things out though too.

Caleb had been wanting to see where the Steeler's play.  So afterwards I drove us down there to see the stadium and what was around the area.  Keith isn't so thrilled he's so interested in the Steeler's!  His first grade teacher was from Pittsburgh and was a fan which started his interest.

Then we headed back to the hotel to register Keith for his conference.  After that we headed to Primanti Brothers for sandwiches.  It was an Pittsburgh experience and was fine, but Keith and I both said we probably wouldn't go back. 

Then we headed back to the hotel for the kids to swim.  The boys had been wanting to swim since we left our house, so swim we did.  Elinore loved it for a half hour, jumping and jumping and jumping.  She's a daredevil when it comes to it, which scares mom!  After that she wanted her towel and she wanted to go!  The boys stayed for another half hour after Elinore and I left, which gave us a chance to shower up first.  once everyone was in dry clothes and the kids were showered, we headed out to try to get some ice cream.  We missed Ben & Jerry's by 20 minutes.  So we ordered dessert to go from the restaurant in our hotel and enjoyed it in our hotel with Full House playing on the TV.  It was a nice relaxing way to end our Sunday with an earlier bedtime for all! 

Idlewild Park & Storybook Forest, Vacation Day 1

Back about 4 years ago, Keith and i took the kids on our first family vacation as a family of 4.  We had a great time and have talked about re-visiting some of our stops from back then.   This year we had the opportunity to revisit Idlewild Park.

Keith is attending a conference this year that is located in Pittsburgh for a week.  (The same one that gave us the opportunity to travel to Boston last year.) 

Saturday morning we headed out and drove to the park.  We spent the day there before heading back into Pittsburgh to check into our downtown hotel for the night.  We had a great day!

I bought out tickets in advance online, which they said to pull up on my phone to check it.  What I didn't know was that there is very limited cell phone reception in the park to me able to pull up the tickets!  So we spent our first bit visiting with guest services and stuff so they could pull up our information.  (The lack of service also made my cell phone battery die during our day in the park too, even though it was fully charged that morning.  I made it almost the whole day for photos though; hopefully, I can share those later.)

We started our day at Storybook Forest.  At 8 the boys were slightly less amused with it than they were 4 years ago!  Elinore however, was very interested at 2 years old!  However, it took her several stories and stops to get comfortable enough to be adventurous.  She liked to "hold you" most of the way through or stay in her stroller.  She was quite excited when we got to the bunnies though.  She is a big fan of bunnies.

Next we headed to the Jumpin' Jungle for some play time.  The boys went off and played in the ball pit while Elinore and I visited a smaller kid zone of plastic balls that you balanced on a stream of air.  She had a lot of fun running around grabbing balls and putting them in there.  Then we went and watched the boys climb the big net!  The didn't need assistance this year, but Keith went with them for their comfort.  Then Keith took Elinore and the boys on the Big Foot Mudslide for a nice long slide ride and they all enjoyed it.  The boys are still excited about Big Foot after church camp and Elinore loved the slide with Daddy!

Next up, lunch!  Tacos, nachos and french fries were our lunch of choice.  The good was actually pretty good and not too expensive! 

Next up we decided to head toward kiddie land for the kiddie rides before Elinore got too sleepy and grumpy from the lack of nap.  We rode the train first, which was fun.  Then, we were back in time to catch Daniel Tiger!  Elinore loves Daniel Tiger, so she was excited in line as she could see him from a distance.  When we got up to our turn though, she insisted Daddy hold her and go with her to stand next to him and don't dare get her too close!  As soon as we walked away though, she started waving and saying bye!

Next up the rides, and she loved the rides!  Her big brothers were just short enough to still ride them and she loved it!  She was even brave enough after a few to ride the kiddie Rainbow Wheel (Ferris Wheel) on her own!  Caleb didn't mind hanging with her in kiddie land, but Caden wasn't so excited about it, and after a few rides, he wasn't so keen on going with her or with riding them at all.  While we were in kiddie land we did get hit with a few drops of rain.  They were very light showers that weren't bothersome at all, and didn't stop the rides, so we just stuck them out.

We headed over to some of the bigger kid rides next, and the ones Elinore could ride with Daddy, she jumped right on.  And when she couldn't ride one, she wasn't too happy about it!  The boys took some encouraging to get them to try a few things. Usually they ended up liking them, all but two at least anyway!  Elinore loved the hot air balloons.  The boys favorites were the bumper cars and the scrambler!  The boys claimed to hate the spider, but I think I saw some hiding smiles on both of them at one point on it!  They also hated the wild mouse roller coaster Keith made them try!  Caleb cried the whole time I guess and Caden just kept asking if it was over yet.

On our way out after the roller coaster, we did get a much harder rain shower.  We hid under the pizza place awning for it to slow down, hit a few of the kids favorite rides on the way out and headed to the car.  We left the park and maybe 15 minutes later it started raining and storming.  It was a terribly long downpour we drove through on our way to our hotel.  We stopped at Hoss's to eat on our way back too, which Keith and the kids seemed to enjoy.  It had finally stopped raining by the time we got to the hotel, we unloaded checked in an got settled for our week here!

Hold you!

The other night Elinore and I went to Target to grab the boys school supplies and a swimsuit for me for vacation.  She's not a big fan of riding in the carts anymore, but she's also not a reliable walker to stick with you.  I usually have her ride for awhile, and she does okay as long as you're moving, but once you start stopping, she's not a fan!  After awhile she'd had enough of it in the cart and wanted held, so she would ask me "hold you? Hold you?!" 

How adorable is that?  You hold me?  Hehe, funny.  But you're so sweet!  She's been asking more now too. 

After that, I let her walk around with me as we were finishing up.  By walk, I mean she runs, and I try to keep up.  Mostly she does a lot of running back and forth from one point to another without making a lot of forward progress!  However, if you move to the tile floor from the carpeted clothing section at Target, she's not a fan.  She wouldn't walk on the tile, but she would run until she was content on that carpet!

As we were getting ready to check out she decided walking on the tile was okay if she help my hand or helped push the cart.  She'd hold onto the platform on the bottom of shopping carts and push while I pushed up above.  She moved quickly with it too!  On our way out of the store this way, she was attracting other people's attention as they smiled and said how cute as she pushed away!

Craft Day

Yesterday was craft day at day care for Elinore. She made this squirrel. I may be biased, but I think it's one of the cutest squirrels ever!